Ahoy from the Desert!

We finally made it back to land! Thanks to everyone who came to our Welcome Home party. We can't tell you how good it was to see so many familiar faces.

You all are invited to La Quinta to visit any time!

Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 14

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 14

Date: 13 August 2009 1900 UTC (1200 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 173 nm
Distance to Half Moon Bay: 168 nm
Latitude: 38 01.176 N
Longitude: 125 58.987 W
COG: 085M
SOG: 7.1 kts under sail
Wind: 12 kts NNW
Seas: 4 ft NW swell
Weather: 10% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1021.0, steady
Sea Temperature: 61 F

Less than 170 miles to go--we are almost there!

Last night the weather suddenly grew colder, and we encountered a light mist that dropped visibility to less than a mile. The mist was particularly interesting as we encountered three Los Angeles bound ships at once. We weaved through the ships using radar and AIS. Around 3 a.m. the wind freshened and we resumed sailing. By 5:30 a.m. we ripping along at close to ten knots, but the wind dropped around mid-morning, and now we are back in the sevens. We are bouncing around in an annoying cross swell that makes the boat move up and down constantly (boat motion called heaving). The up and down motion is more difficult to deal with than rolling or pitching, but we aren't uncomfortable.

We expect the wind to build throughout the day, maybe to 30 knots. Along with the increase in wind we will be seeing 10' waves that are closely spaced. Tonight is probably going to be a bumpy one. We have put away most of the "projectiles" and are ready to go.

The seawater temperature is down to 61 degrees! The temperature inside the boat has descended to the point where we are wearing insulated foul weather gear and thick wool socks. Quite a welcome to "Sunny California"!

For those of you interested in meeting us at the dock, we still don't have a good idea of precisely when it will be. It's fairly certain at this point that it'll be tomorrow morning. Tonight we should get a better idea. We'll be in touch with Pat when we can be more specific about the time.

Hope to see you on Sunday at the Dutch Goose!

Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 13

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 13

Date: 12 August 2009 1900 UTC (1200 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 167 nm
Distance to Half Moon Bay: nm
Latitude: 38 29.464 N
Longitude: 129 35.700 W
COG: 082M
SOG: 6.7 kts under power
Wind: calm
Seas: 2 ft WNW swell, ft wind waves
Weather: 80% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1022.6, rising
Sea Temperature: 69 F

The wind continued to drop throughout the day yesterday, and by 7 p.m. we were back under power. Overnight apparent wind stopped altogether, and we had a very smooth night motoring across a quiet sea. Around 9 a.m. this morning the wind starting blowing from the North with the slightest breeze. We still don't have enough wind to sail, but this small amount of North wind is a sign of things to come.

We expect the wind to begin to pick up later today and continue to build. We may have some interesting sailing for our last day at sea. Right now the forecast is showing strong winds and short-period, 9' seas. 9' seas aren't THAT big, but when they are close together they become very steep. We will spending some time today putting things away onboard Samadhi so that they don't become projectiles. We are probably overdoing it, but better prepared than not.

Otherwise, things have mostly been quiet here. We saw no ships yesterday and only a couple of small, solitary birds. It's nice to know that we're almost at our destination with so little excitement compared to our previous ocean crossing.

Kelly parents have organized a gathering for her birthday and Samadhi V's homecoming. It will be from 11:30 - 2:30 on Sunday August 16th at the Dutch Goose in Menlo Park. We'd love to see you there!

Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 12

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 12

Date: 11 August 2009 1900 UTC (1200 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 23 hours: 176 nm
Distance to Half Moon Bay: 509 nm
Latitude: 38 50.732 N
Longitude: 133 07.621 W
COG: 080M
SOG: 7.5 kts under sail
Wind: 10 kts SW
Seas: 1.5 ft W swell, 1 ft SW wind waves
Weather: 75% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1020.0, rising
Sea Temperature: 69 F

The winds continued pushing Samadhi along at a rapid clip until 6 p.m. yesterday. After that, the wind suddenly moved directly astern of us and dropped to less than 10 knots. This shift caused us much consternation as we rolled about in the leftover seas. The sails on a sailboat not only provide the power to move through the water, but also the force to stabilize the boat. Take away the wind, and you also take away the stabilizing effect. Samadhi was rolling around so much, as to prevent Kelly from being able to sleep.

Then, it started to rain, not a warm tropical sprinkling but a continuous cold shower. At 10 p.m. we decided to start the engine to get the boat moving again. Once the engine was going, Samadhi rolled less, and Kelly managed to sleep. After midnight the wind began to pick up again and move back towards our beam. By 1 a.m. we were back to sailing with all of our working sails out, drawing us along a 8-10 knots. Looking back, it would seem like we encountered a massive wet and cold "squall", but that's probably not the right term for it.

Today, the wind is slightly less brisk, and the seas significantly smoother. The skies are mostly gray, and the air over the 69º ocean is predictably cool. Both of us are tired after last night's sleep-disturbing rolling.

We celebrated Kelly's birthday all day yesterday. She has never had a birthday quite like her 31st. From the albatrosses to the jellyfish to freinds and family ashore, even passing tankers, everyone wished Kelly a happy birthday.

Assuming we can keep this pace, we'll be arriving in Pillar Point early Friday morning. The winds are supposed to slack tomorrow though and then we've got some heavy weather and seas waiting for us on Thursday. It's fairly clear we'll be making it to port sometime on Friday though. We're both looking forward to sleeping the night through.

Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 11

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 11

Date: 10 August 2009 2000 UTC (1200 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 191 nm
Distance to Half Moon Bay: 687 nm
Latitude: 39 05.251 N
Longitude: 136 55.296 W
COG: 078M
SOG: 8.4 kts under sail
Wind: 17 kts SSW
Seas: 2 ft WSW swell, 2 ft SSW wind waves
Weather: 50% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1019.5, falling
Sea Temperature: 70 F

Tomorrow we plan to make our last time change to Pacific Daylight Time (UTC -07). You can expect our report an hour earlier.

The wind has picked up and so has our speed. Samadhi has been surging ahead, happy to be on the move once more. We have seen our speed increase to 11.9 knots on several occasions, but so far we haven't broken 12. We know Samadhi can go faster if the wind and waves cooperate, and we are crossing our fingers that today will be an even faster day.

As the Arctic low has moved in behind us, the ocean temperature has dropped steadily. Most of the morning it's been sitting at 69ºF. Combined with sailing downwind, this has made the boat interior rather colder than we'd like. Yesterday afternoon, this led to us digging out our three-piece, canvas and clear vinyl "cruising curtain" that turns our dodger into a makeshift pilothouse. We'd had the curtain rolled up and stowed since we left California almost two years ago. Boy, what a difference it makes! This morning, inside its shelter on deck, it was almost up to 90 degrees in the "pilothouse" while the temperature below decks was a toasty 80 degrees. The outside air temp has been in the mid 60s to low 70s. We sit happily in the boat, pretending we are still in the tropics... sure beats wearing our foul weather gear to stay toasty warm!

In the early evening, the line for second reef in the mainsail managed to untie itself while we were sailing. Luckily, we spotted the dangling line before it pulled completely out of the sail. Some mid-ocean gymnastics put things right once more. Hanging over the racing seas while trying to concentrate on retying the line correctly was exciting. The fact that Phillip was wearing a safety harness tethered to the boat reportedly did little to make him feel safer.

We passed a cargo vessel yesterday, destined for Korea. The vessel was a RORO (short for Roll-On, Roll-Off) which carry cars and trucks around the world. ROROs are the weirdest looking ships afloat. They remind us of something you would build out of Legos. This morning we were passed by an oil tanker bound for Panama. It was beautiful to watch the giant ship slide by under the morning sun.

Today is Kelly's birthday! Phillip baked her fresh candied-ginger scones for breakfast. They were a real treat and absolutely delicious. Kelly can't imagine a more special place to celebrate her birthday than 600 miles offshore on the clear blue Pacific. We'll be very sad to leave this behind, but the time for new, land-based adventures is upon us. We're eager to see what's in store for us and the boys in the year to come.

Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 10

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 10

Date: 9 August 2009 2000 UTC (1200 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 170 nm
Distance to Half Moon Bay: 877 nm
Latitude: 39 12.464 N
Longitude: 140 59.875 W
COG: 075M
SOG: 7.8 kts under sail
Wind: 15 kts SW
Seas: 2 ft W swell, 2 ft SW wind waves
Weather: 90% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1024.8, falling
Sea Temperature: 72 F

Samadhi is once again rolling along under a full press of sail! Unfortunately the skies have darkened to overcast gloom (although the un has started peaking through in the last half hour), and the air temperature is downright chilly--surely under the influence of the suddenly lower sea surface temp. We feel like we have crossed an invisible line from "Tropical" to "Pacific Northwest" weather overnight. Cooler temps aside, we are happy to be sailing once more, and no longer listening to the engine.

The mild wind has moved aft of the beam, and we are sailing on a broad reach. These conditions have us sliding down the seas like a winter pedestrian who discovers the sidewalk on the hill is covered with ice. Our speeds have varied from the 5 to 9 knots, with a lot of time spent 6.5 to 8. There have been a lot of small squalls that, so far, we have managed to avoid. Each time a squall passes by, our wind changes which leads to the variation in our speed.

The weather is changing rapidly on a larger scale, with the Pacific High shifting in response to a storm coming down from Alaska. Kelly's father Pat has upped his weather forecasting to twice daily due to the changing conditions. So far, it looks like we are still on the "right track" and no course changes are warranted.

Morning found us digging through our stored clothing, looking for the sweaters and long underwear we haven't worn in two years. If this weather keeps up, I expect we'll be spending a lot of our time wearing our foul weather gear (which is warm and fleece lined). All we're missing at this point is fog. We haven't sailed in heavy fog since we left California--not that we missed it!

The cold has gotten us in a bread baking mood (after all, the oven heats up the boat), and Phillip's already got the dough rising. Phillip also put on some Gordon Bok to get into the "sailing in cold places" mindset. The coast may be the wrong one, but the feeling's the same!

Yesterday afternoon, we spotted the first of what we think are albatross, a sleek bird with an incredible, double-jointed wingspan, dipping low in the wave troughs and then circling around to do it again. It was fascinating watching the bird circle around, skimming over the seas, seemingly never flapping it's wings. There have been a few more this morning.

We did an inventory yesterday to check how much fuel we have onboard, and determined we have used about half of our 200 gallons of diesel. We also have lots of water onboard... and NO shortage of food. People often ask us what we do for food on long passages. We have never had an issue in the dining department. I think we gain weight with every long trip at sea.

Kelly's mom Kathy is rumored to have something in the works for a homecoming celebration a week from today. You're sure to hear more on that soon. There'll also be at least a few folks who come down to the harbor to meet Samadhi when she docks. That will be a bit harder to schedule, but as we get closer we should be able to pin it down. We'll plan to go somewhere local (like Barbara's) for refreshments after. Just don't expect us to step out of our foulies to go somewhere too nice! Brrrrrr!

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 9

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 9

Date: 8 August 2009 2000 UTC (1200 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 155 nm
Distance to Half Moon Bay: 1047 nm
Latitude: 39 12.056 N
Longitude: 144 38.991 W
COG: 073M
SOG: 8.2 kts motorsailing
Wind: 5 kts SSE
Seas: 3 ft W swell
Weather: 10% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1028.5, steady
Sea Temperature: 76 F

The wind remained calm until around dawn when it moved forward of the beam and freshened a bit. We're happy to have an extra couple of knots. The swells are bigger too, but they are from astern and giving us a little push. There's still not enough wind to shut down the engine (We tried!), but it's getting there.

Life aboard Samadhi has been very mellow. Much of our entertainment involves books and cooking and movies on our laptops. We've just about exhausted all seven of the Carl Hiaasen novels we have aboard. (We're not sure where the other three went but are very disappointed not to be able to find them.) Normally, our taste in reading material favors non-fiction, but when we're trying to stay awake and alert in the wee hours of the morning, a real page-turner can make a big difference! Kelly also finds she has less patience than normal for sloppy prose. Phil did manage to read the recent biography of Mao Tse-tung (which was excellent) at the beginning of the passage, but most nights Kelly's eyes just won't stay open for something so information-dense.

In mild conditions like this we can cook just about anything we like, anything that we would on land. Yesterday, we made fried rice for lunch and an Indian curry (with the mahi mahi!) for dinner. In the mornings, we usually make something traditional like eggs and bacon or one of Phillip's famous scrambles. Phillip's even been known to make fresh hollandaise. The only real difference is that we try to use as few dishes as possible. Samadhi has a lot of things, but a dishwasher isn't among them, and washing dishes is a water-intensive task.

We aren't seeing marine life like we did when sailing from Costa Rica. Not a single flying fish has landed onboard the boat since we left Hawaii. We see very few birds or fish (aside from the fish we catch). However, we are seeing things on this passage that we didn't see on our trip over from Central America. We have seen well over ten ships so far! We have also been seeing a lot more signs of people, such as trash. Virtually 100% of the trash we see is plastic in one form or another. Since the sea has been so smooth, the floating debris tends to stand out clearly. Of course Samadhi is made of plastic, and we are floating out here too...

We've been delighted to receive so many emails from friends and family. It's always a pleasure to correspond with people out here where we have few distractions to break the consistency of our routine. Kelly's reminded of exchanging letters with her Granny or writing to family when she was at camp. Thanks to everyone who's gone to the trouble to write to us while we're underway. We love hearing from you!

Originally, we had anticipated returning home much sooner than we are. As usual though, our departure was dictated by work on the boat and then weather conditions, so we left when we thought the passage would be safest. Our first couple of days out of Kauai were pretty tough, and it gave us peace of mind that we had taken the time to prepare Samadhi the right way.

When back on the hard, we'll be living in La Quinta in the Southern California desert just southeast of Palm Springs. Moving and getting the boys settled and ready for school will be our top priorities once we reach land. We've been trying to make up for our mid-August arrival by doing as much of the legwork as possible through email or by proxy. (Big thanks again to Kathy and Pat!) So far, we've already leased a home and gotten the kids approved for enrollment in a local public school (John Glenn Middle School of International Studies). Still, that leaves plenty to think about. We couldn't have done any of it without the wonderful support of our family. It'll be great to live (relatively) nearby again!

At this point we're estimating that our arrival will be sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning of next week. That depends on us averaging a minimum of 150 miles a day (6.25 knots) from now on. We'll be refining that estimate as we get closer to land. It would be great to see smiling faces at the dock when we get there!

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 8

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 8

Date: 7 August 2009 2000 UTC (1200 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 23 hours: 153 nm
Distance to Half Moon Bay: 1249 nm
Latitude: 39 05.710 N
Longitude: 147 58.698 W
COG: 072M
SOG: 6.2 kts under power
Wind: 7 kts S
Seas: 2 ft W swell
Weather: 50% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1029.0, steady
Sea Temperature: 75 F

It's been another idyllic day aboard Samadhi V. Smooth seas and pleasant weather abound. We don't have much wind currently, but we aren't complaining. Samadhi is gently being pushed by the shallow swells and rocking us to sleep when we're off watch.

Since the wind is continuing to be very light and from astern, we are still under power. We brought our full capacity of fuel along with us. We plan to use the fuel to shorten our journey to California. The most current forecast is showing stronger winds in 2-3 days.

We've "turned the corner" and established Samadhi on our final course to Half Moon Bay. We believe that we have passed the halfway mileage point in our journey. It is heartening to no longer be pointed towards Alaska!

Sadly, we have depleted our stores of Hawaiian tropical fruit. Now we are down to apples and limes to keep the scurvy at bay. :) That, and all the fresh vegetables still aboard. We've also been eating lots of dried fruit and nuts -- special thanks to Leslie or her care package of goodies that arrived in Hawaii before we left!

To conserve water aboard, we have been using a combination of saltwater and fresh to wash the dishes. We also decided to use paper plates on this passage to reduce the amount of dishes and thus freshwater used. It's a real chore to wash dishes by hand in saltwater. The reason is twofold, one because you must be careful not to get the saltwater everywhere (salt inside the boat leads to lots of issues) and second, it requires two rinses, one in saltwater and then a final one in fresh. With just the two of us aboard, we've been able to stretch things to two or three days between dishwashing. The boys would definitely confirm that this is a big improvement over the daily exercise we had on our passage to Hawaii.

As noted above, Samadhi Time is now UTC -8. We plan to change to UTC -7 (PDT) a few days before landfall.

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 7

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Hawaii to California, Day 7

Date: 6 August 2009 2100 UTC (1200 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 164 nm
Distance to Half Moon Bay: 1403 nm
Latitude: 38 26.578 N
Longitude: 151 07.743 W
COG: 052M
SOG: 7.0 kts under power
Wind: 4 kts SE
Seas: 2 ft W swell
Weather: 20% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1028.6, steady
Sea Temperature: 76 F

Apparently we spoke too soon when we said the wind had returned in yesterday's report. Not long after sending the email out, the wind once again shut off. So, we have been motoring (we would say motorsailing, but the sails aren't doing much) since. Motoring isn't bad though, the seas are approaching completely flat, and Samadhi is making excellent progress at low, fuel-efficient power settings.

Later yesterday afternoon, we spotted a large vessel on radar. Soon after our radar contact, we picked it up on the AIS. According to the AIS and the radar, the Korea bound vessel "Formosa 11" was on a near collision course, and steaming at over 14 knots. As the weather was crystal clear and seas were flat, we expected to see the vessel altering course to pass astern of us. As we watched the vessel growing closer, it was obvious that it was a tanker, and that it wasn't changing course.

We decided to call them on the radio and ask if they see us. Phillip called twice, but there was no answer from the tanker. This struck us as strange, because there is NO VHF radio traffic out here, so if you hear someone on the radio, you pay attention. Kelly tried calling again a few minutes later and got a response, which was nearly unintelligible. Although we couldn't understand everything they were saying (They probably weren't native English speakers.), they seemed to understand us. Abruptly after our radio conversation, they made a large course change to pass astern of us.

The weather has become markedly less squally, but it did look like it was about to rain through part of the night. Passing under some dark overcast areas with the bright full moon illuminating the surrounding sea was beautiful in a black and white kind of way. This morning's sunrise was equally spectacular.

We haven't been fishing, but we have been eating lots of mahi mahi.

The very small amount of wind we have been experiencing overnight is moving around more towards the southeast. We have started to turn towards our new course which will reach early tomorrow. By tomorrow we will be headed straight (more or less) for Half Moon Bay. There is a certain amount of comedy in "Sail straight out into the Pacific, then turn right!" but that is indeed what we are doing.

Also, this is the first day where the barometer has actually fallen. (It was even lower early this morning.) This is another indication that the time has come to head for home.

Finally, we are planning to change time zones tomorrow to UTC -8 (Alaska Daylight Time). you can expect our update 1 hour earlier.